July 2023 Sightings

Late morning, checking out a few new spots while birding. There is a HUGE field of milkweed and dogbane.

9:30 am. Stopped at a small milkweed patch on Colemans Bridge Rd.

Overcast, 79 degrees, 57% humidity. Winds SE at 11mph. FOY Painted Lady for me, with the FOY for the log being only yesterday. With them both being worn individuals, in addition to the Long-tailed Skipper report from yesterday as well, it seems there has been a nice push of southern migrants through the area. Interesting time of year for it. There’s still so much we don’t know.

Quick stop when the sun came out in the late afternoon. Coral is likely a different individual from the Belleplain Count, as that sighting came from the DT side.

4:30, sunny and humid. Always happy to find a Pearl Crescent!

Obs. made from 12:20 to 3, hazy filtered sun & 78-80 degrees. Activity very low for this time of year here.

Monarch first we've seen in the yard this year.

LWS, AB, RA and PC(1) on woodland trails. Peck's is the first grass skipper I've seen at LL since May.

Obs. 1.00-2.00. Temps in the high 70’s. Saw my FOY monarch butterfly and a larva at almost the same time.

Pollinator garden only (by the parking lots) 11:30-1:30. 81 degrees, sunny and humid. Weeded some of the mugwort to plant some mt. mint and a senna marilandica. Monarch laid an egg on swamp milkweed. Lots of good nectar.

Property on the south side of Ong's Hat Rd. 10:15 to 11:45 am. Filtered sun.

We were there to purchase plants (no camera). Lovely stands of nectar (Common Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, and more). Rare Skipper was on Common Milkweed (our FOY). Common Sootywing was perched in grasses below. Lots of other skippers, but didn't pause to tally.

Partly sunny, 82 degrees at 11:30am. FOY Rare Skipper for me and an addition to yesterdays backyard report.

Obs. made from 4-5:20 p.m. Cloudy with filtered sun and mid 80's. No Harvesters observed today. Only one Beech tree with minimal amounts of aphids. The Beech Forest floor is now covered in Tulip Poplar saplings following the 2021 tornado. The old butterfly garden is apparently being restored. All that remains is one Buttonbush and some Common Milkweed.

Hazy, hot, & humid. Temperature reached the high 80s. Mostly birding in the park today.

[First Striped Hairstreak in Camden County since June 15, 2019. TB]

Obs. 1.00-1.45 Temps low 80’s. Some blue in the sky. A brief walk under poor air quality conditions.

Very little time in garden today. Rare Skipper was on Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis).

Had my first Question Mark in the garden today. Anglewings have been scarce here the last couple of years. This spring I had to cut down one of my Hackberry trees as it was blocking too much light to the garden. I topped it at around 9 feet and mounted a decorative birdhouse. As is often the case new growth has appeared on the tree stump and I watched as a female Q-Mark attempt to lay eggs. The image was taken days before the Q-Mark was seen.

Despite there being no Hackberries on Hackberry Way, there were many Wild Cherries, and a field of Milkweed. Late morning, very hot, humid, sunny. Very fun counting Coral Hairstreaks which were flying all over. Beware: lots of ticks.

[Our highest count for corals in many years, if not ever (the next-highest recently I see is 26 found by Dave Amadio at Riverwinds on 6-14-20) and the latest record of Euro skipper since way back in 2014 when one was spotted on 7-25-14. jc]

[Dave Amadio kindly sent in this follow-up:

Jack,

I saw the report by Jeanine & Greg from Stockton of 33 Coral Hairstreaks. Outstanding total and it is great to see that there are a number of thriving colonies in our region. I recently went back and looked at all of my records from Riverwinds going back only to 2009. I have recorded the following high counts:

6-12-21 22
6-19-20 24
6-14-20 26
6-24-18 40
6-25-17 30
6-23-17 32

I believe that Steve Glynn had a couple of counts around 30 from Cumberland County as well.
Riverwinds was less productive this year with a high count of 8 ending a streak of 6 years with double digit counts here. Another odd statistic I found was that 6-17-23 I recorded my 6th mated pair here at Riverwinds. Wish Banded Hairstreaks were doing this well here. They have been absent here for several years reaching a high count of 11 on 6-21-14.

Take Care,
Dave]

11:45 am to 2:55 pm. Mostly sunny, hot & humid. 88 degrees.

I was only at the garden for about 5 minutes and watched the female monarch landing on the swamp milkweed. This was my first Monarch sighting at the park. (I didn’t have a camera because I was walking the dog.) About 6 pm and windy.

Sun and clouds, humid, mid 80’s.

85 and humid.

[Welcome to Erica Iouriev, our newest contributor to the South Jersey Butterfly Project. Thank you for joining the effort! jc]

Painfully slow here and in the surrounding area. Did enjoy my first Snout of the season in the yard.

8-10 am. 82 degrees. Mostly cloudy and a brief light rain shower. I checked the Harvester area and found a half-dozen or so small aphid colonies but no Harvesters or cats.

10:20-11:20 am. Partly sunny & humid. 82 degrees.